Admit It, Star Trek’s First Episode Is Painfully Average

The “which episode of Star Trek: The Original Series comes first?” conversation is a tricky topic. “The Man Trap” was the series premiere, airing in the U.S. on September 8, 1966, but “Where No Man Has Gone Before” was the first episode of season 1 actually produced. Before that, “The Cage” served as Star Trek‘s initial pilot, albeit with a largely different cast.

Nevertheless, it was indeed “The Man Trap” that technically came first, seizing the honor of being the world’s first taste of an IP that has since gone from strength to strength. Star Trek has dominated TV, movies, books, and comics, and has evolved into one of western society’s true cultural touchstones, transcending geographical and generational borders. It’s weird, therefore, that describing Star Trek‘s first episode as average could be deemed generous.

We Need To Talk About “The Man Trap”

McCoy and Nancy smiling in Star Trek: The Original Series — Star Trek: The Original Series Bones and Nancy Man Trap

At a glance, it’s clear why NBC picked “The Man Trap” as the episode that would introduce America to Star Trek. Captain Kirk beams a team down to an alien planet, encounters an extra-terrestrial threat picking off his crew members, and they eventually find a way to shoot it. Not only was “The Man Trap” relatively familiar territory as a piece of science-fiction, the core format broadly represented what audiences could expect from Star Trek most weeks.

But “The Man Trap” did Star Trek‘s future episodes a favor by setting the bar quite low.

The shallowness of the plot is particularly surprising, as Star Trek typically stood out from its sci-fi contemporaries thanks to a keen intellectual spark – the kind of spark that turned other “killer alien on a strange planet” stories like “The Devil in the Dark” and “Arena” into bona fide classics. “The Man Trap” offers little beyond the obvious: a shape-shifting monster killing people for salt.

That may be due to writer George Clayton Johnson’s early ’60s work on The Twilight Zone. Like The Twilight Zone, “The Man Trap” deals more in horror trademarks like suspense and mystery than Star Trek trademarks like morality and philosophy. As a consequence, the episode’s moody soundtrack follows the wrong tone.

It’s a wildly uneven script too. On one hand, you can praise “The Man Trap” for its fun interactions between Kirk and McCoy, which immediately create the impression of long-serving colleagues that have become close friends. At the same time, the exposition is regularly clunky, such as Spock’s “We get a reading on only one person, probably Crater. He’s circling as if searching for something.” That’s a lot of convenient assumptions for a Vulcan.

“The Man Trap” also delivers some absolute clangers with its dialogue. Kirk telling McCoy “stop thinking with your glands” is a bit rich coming from him, and Spock repeats almost exactly the same line twice in a row at one point (“It’s killing the captain, shoot it Doctor, quickly“). Spock’s proposal to force truth serum on a civilian feels even more out of place than his yelling. Surely more a Romulan tactic than something Starfleet should entertain, yet entertain it they do.

Considering “The Man Trap” was Star Trek‘s first episode, McCoy gets a rough deal. Despite plenty of screentime, his refusal to see the dark truth behind Nancy until she physically transforms into a vampiric salt monster makes the Enterprise’s chief medical officer look like a bit of an idiot if you’re watching with no established reference point for what McCoy’s character should be.

Even Star Trek: The Original Series‘ cast weren’t fans of their own first outing. Leonard Nimoy singled “The Man Trap” out as the weakest of the first batch filmed for season 1 (in Leonard Nimoy: Star Trek Memories), while William Shatner went further, calling it “dreadful” in his memoirs.

What Works About Star Trek’s “The Man Trap”

The salt vampire in Star Trek: The Original Series

“The Man Trap” may sit on the less impressive end of the Star Trek spectrum, and it’s certainly an uninspired choice as an opener, but the Enterprise’s maiden voyage is not entirely without merit.

The real redeeming feature of “The Man Trap” is how it showcases the main crew members. Kirk provides a charismatic and compelling central figure, and his determination to get justice for an ever-increasing pile of dead crew members is the only reason the story has any weight.

The botany-based exchange between Sulu and Rand carries little relevance to the main plot, but goes a long way toward making the Enterprise feel like a home and its crew feel like a family. Other small interactions, like the one between Uhura and Spock in the opening minutes, are similarly worthwhile, and almost make “The Man Trap” look like a sensible choice for episode 1 in terms of establishing character.

It wouldn’t be unreasonable to have low expectations for visual effects in Star Trek episode 1, but Nancy’s true form is surprisingly effective. It’s the kind of horrifying visage that would burn itself into a child’s mind, not unlike the fake Balok from “The Corbomite Maneuver.” At the same time, it’s a costume that forces the viewer to see an intelligent creature rather than a simple beast. The script tries, but it’s the creature’s design that sells it.

“The Man Trap” isn’t a bad episode of Star Trek, and likely wouldn’t be on anyone’s radar had it aired mid-season. By virtue of starting a multi-decade franchise, however, “The Man Trap” gets more attention than it really warrants, leaving its flaws exposed in a way other unspectacular installments never had to worry about.